By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
The Carrboro Board of Aldermen grappled on Tuesday with long-term transportation plans for Carrboro and the surrounding areas, including the possibility of highway, fixed guideway, bike path and other improvements, as well as how to pay for them.
The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO), which includes all of Durham County and the urbanized parts of Orange and Chatham counties, is developing the 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan. For the plan, transportation and local government officials are considering transportation projects to address future needs.
Board members weighed in on preferred transportation projects, encouraging improvements to bus and fixed-guideway options, rather than intensive highway projects.
Board member Joal Hall Broun said the DCHC MPO should work with other local MPOs to connect bus routes, especially from Alamance County.
“There’s a plethora of people coming in from Mebane and that area,†she said. “The fact of the matter is, there are people who get in their cars every day to come to [work at] the hospital.â€
Board member Dan Coleman pointed out that UNC is already looking at transportation options from Alamance County to Chapel Hill.
Andy Henry, representative from the City of Durham and the MPO, said the local MPO does work with other MPOs to connect transportation.
Broun and other board members also emphasized the importance of considering light rail or another type of fixed guideway.
“If we don’t ever propose a fixed guideway, then no one is going to consider it, no matter how much it costs,â€board member Broun said. “We know that we’re running out of oil, both domestic and foreign.â€
“People never thought hat light rail would start in Mecklenburg County,†she added.
Board member Randee Haven-O’Donnell questioned the possibility of a passenger train from Carrboro to Hillsborough.
“Folks in Carrboro for a really long time have been interested in a rail spur from Hillsborough,†Haven-O’Donnell said.
However, Carrboro transportation planner Adena Messinger said the university plans to keep the use of the rail line in Carrboro for transporting coal for the university’s cogeneration plant.
“That doesn’t mean that a guideway couldn’t be run parallel to [the university’s line],†Haven-O’Donnell said. “I just think it’s important for us to connect that way.â€
Board members also considered different methods of funding the project, including a fuel tax, vehicle registration fees, a sales tax and a rental-car tax.
“I think the sales tax is going to be a popular suggestion, but I think it’s very regressive,†Coleman said.
Mayor Mark Chilton said he anticipated that it would be difficult to get all the different parties of the MPO to agree on a revenue source, and said the board shouldn’t eliminate a sales tax as a possible funding source.
“It’s sort of difficult enough already to get an agreement on the least controversial type of tax,†he said. “The service that’s to be provided by subsidizing public transportation with a sales tax is a progressive-enough type of service.â€
Broun said she would discourage use of a fuel tax because revenues go down as people drive less and cars become more fuel efficient.
â€We need to think of a revenue source that is somewhat more stable,†she said.
Some funding will come from the federal and state level, but projects must be included in the long-range plan in order to receive that funding.
After collecting input from the municipalities, the MPO intends to develop a draft of the plan by December for federal approval in June 2009.